Baseball: Dirk Nowitzki, the German playmaker who led the Dallas Mavericks to an NBA Finals victory, carried a basketball to the pitcher’s mound for his ceremonial opening pitch at a baseball game. The Texas Rangers, who lost their Major League Baseball championship bid last year in the World Series to San Francisco, gave Nowitzki the honour of making the ceremonial toss following the Mavericks’ dream title run.

Motor Racing: Takuma Sato became the first Japanese driver in IndyCar Series history to win a pole position, pacing Friday night’s qualifiers for the Iowa Corn Indy 250. Sato posted a two-lap average speed of 180.375 mph (288.600 k/hr) around the .875-mile oval to edge US racer Danica Patrick, on 180.210.

Triathlon: Alistair Brownlee produced one of the most impressive performances of his career to retain his European triathlon title in Spain after recovering from a flat tyre. The 2009 world champion fought hard to get back to the main pack and then took charge on the run with younger brother Jonny. Alistair pulled away in the final stages to claim victory by eight seconds.

Cricket: Mahela Jayawardene’s unbeaten 72 saw Sri Lanka to a nine-wicket victory against England in the lone Twenty20 international yesterday. Jayawardene’s innings backed up an impressive bowling display that left the tourists needing just 137 to beat World Twenty20 champions England. They reached their target for the loss of only veteran Sanath Jayasuriya with 16 balls to spare.

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